This case involves a 70-year-old general contractor who, in 2019, suffered an injury while using a Technogym Excite TOP upper body trainer, a piece of gym equipment designed to allow for seat adjustment by sliding the seat along a track. However, the seat slid completely off the track, causing the man to fall and hit his head. Although initially experiencing dizziness, he later developed back and neck pain, leading to a cervical fusion surgery a year after the fall and a lumbar fusion surgery three years later.

The case, which took eight years to reach a resolution, faced numerous delays due to discovery battles, COVID-19, and the defendant’s bankruptcy. In 2023, a California jury awarded the now 78-year-old man a significant verdict, marking the largest reported noneconomic damages-only verdict in the U.S. The lawsuit emphasized the failure of the gym equipment to properly warn users of the design flaw that led to the seat sliding off the track, ultimately causing long-term harm to the plaintiff.